Miscellaneous in December

Standfast Burkina

We (Peace Corps Burkina Faso) have been on lockdown (standfast phase) for the last couple of days due to some fighting between the police and the military in the capital city involving gunfire and some casualties (apparently they can tell the difference between each other I actually met the head guy of the police station in my neighborhood last week. His name is Elvis (excellent), he’s super nice, speaks English, expressed his happiness that I am here, gave me his card and told me to call him if I ever have any problems, and took my number because he would like to work on his English while I’m here if that would be ok with me. I think we can work something out). Standfast phase basically just means that volunteers are supposed to stay at their sites, not travel anywhere, pack their emergency bags (to be ready if the situation elevates to consolidation or evacuation phase), and wait for further instruction. The Peace Corps has a really good emergency system in place in the case that anything happens from elections gone awry to war to natural disasters. They don’t take risks, if something’s going down they don’t mess around, and I appreciate that. Rumor has it that this is the first time in 15 years that they have reached this phase in Burkina. Who knows, maybe I will witness history in the making here. They lifted the lockdown phase today, but of course want to be able to account for everyone’s whereabouts for a while until they can rest assured that everything is calm. No worries.

Gremlins or children?

Today I awoke to the sound of 5 little 4-yr old boys chanting my name outside my window. I have no idea how the number grew from 2 to 5 but it did – either they got wet and multiplied, or word got out that I have an endless supply of bonbons and will give them at will to any child who smiles, asks for one nicely and says please and thank you…I’m a sucker, no pun intended:). The kids in this country are PERSISTENT! When they see my coming down the street they don’t just call out nasara or toubabou one time. No sir. They say it over and over until I look and wave or, in the case I choose to ignore them, until I am out of earshot. It never fails. Same with the kids in my courtyard.
Since I have failed at getting any pics up as of yet, I shall paint a picture of my living situation. My house is a small 2-rm house located on the west side of my courtyard. The entrance door to the courtyard is to the north of my house and the latrine and “shower” rooms are to the south – all along the west wall of the courtyard. There is nothing along the entire south wall – that’s where the goats sleep - oh the goats. In the northeast corner of the courtyard is the “big house” as I refer to it. There are at least 3 rooms in there and I have no idea who, if anyone, sleeps there. I’m sure somebody must, otherwise I have no idea where all these people sleep. The big house has some type of “living room” right inside the door (which faces my house) where a television is always on. Next to the big house along the north wall is the cooking area, essentially a little brick shack that houses pots and pans I guess and the ladies cook everything right outside the door. Next to the “kitchen” is a building that stretches the remaining length of the north wall to the entrance door and has 3 separate doors. I have seen everyone come in and out of these doors, so I’m not exactly sure what lies on the other sides. I have a cement porch along the entire length of the front of my house and it has a straw covering on top, referred to here as a hangar. The big house also has a porch, though it’s probably half the size of mine. 17 feet separate my porch from the porch of the big house, so essentially I am living right frickin’ on top of this family of at least 10 (not including the 3 additional 4-yr olds that sprouted today).
So when the kids haven’t yet seen me by around 9am (like today because I slept in after sharing a bottle of fantastic French wine last night downtown with another volunteer after my Judo class), they get restless and feel it their duty to get me up and going – or they just wanted some candy and had probably been waiting around for hours for me to get up and just couldn’t wait any longer. They chant in unison over and over until they see me then they scurry around the corner laughing and wait impatiently for me to say hi, ask them how their morning is and then, of course, offer bonbons. It’s not the worst way to wake up in the morning, and now I hear “sil vous plaits” and “mercis” all over the place.
I am slowly putting an end to the children calling me Nasara and Toubabou and Le Blanc in my neighborhood. When I’m out walking around and someone calls me one of these, I stop and introduce myself and tell them I would rather be called Nanette or Mademoiselle (or Madame since I am clearly at the end of the Mademoiselle phase). So far it’s been going pretty good and a lot of people now say “Bonjour Nanette” when they see me. Yesterday there was a bunch of kids outside the boutique where I was buying bread, so we went through this little introduction and after I walked away they all chanted “Bye Bye Mademoiselle Toubabou.” It’s a work in progress.
I have noticed one thing about this family with 2 wives. I have been told that the first wife has 7 kids and the second has 3. Of these 10 there are 2 4-yr old boys, 2 8-yr old girls, a 16-yr old boy and girl and then Aisha (my 20-yr old Judo girl) and then there must be 3 that live somewhere else. In another situation one might assume that this family had 3 sets of twins, but here it might be explained as some form of family planning?

Insects, etc.

Before I came to Africa I spent a notable amount of time worrying about the insect/bug/rodent situation here. Fear of the unknown coupled with truly amazing returned Peace Corps volunteers’ stories kept me awake a few nights. This topic comes up now because I just saw a rather long-legged spider making its way down my wall. (Sometimes I write my blogs at my house on my laptop and save them to my thumb drive which I take to the internet café and upload my blog from. It’s faster and cheaper and I can use my American keyboard!) Obviously the insect/bug/etc situation changes with the climate, and I am quite sure that I have only seen the very nicest time of year so far. My house has screens on every opening, yet it’s not sealed and those suckers get through. I swear I have felt things crawl on me in the night (which is why I sleep in scrub pants and a long sleeved shirt every night), and I wonder if it’s my imagination or if I am sharing my bed with multi-legged creepy crawlies. Either explanation could be valid. I have been in my house officially 3 weeks today. During that time I have killed (with my shoe) about 6 roaches, at least as many crickets, 4 spiders and a slew of ants. I could tell when I first got here that they had sprayed some type of insecticide around my house. After a week or so I noticed more regular occurrences of my fast moving friends, so I went to the boutique and bought some insect spray of my own. There were 2 choose from, so I chose the one with a bug in the middle of a big red target on the front. I sprayed every inch of my house with this as well as the screens from the outside. This was a week ago and since then I have been finding dead things all over, but very few alive. All of the precautions on the can are in French, and most of those words haven’t made it into my vocabulary yet. I’m thinking I might want to get the dictionary out and do some translating if I intend to make regular use of this product. I’m actually in a good situation because other volunteers around these parts have told me about the mice and bats that live in their houses. Just as I was not ready to live without electricity, I am also not ready to set up house with bats and mice. Good luck to those that have to deal with that!

Just me

Things are different here no doubt. Where there used to be lotion, there is now sunscreen and bug repellent. Where there used to be business suits and heels, there is not capris and flip-flops. Where there used to makeup and jewelry and blow-dried hair, there is just me, me, me.

Here's a care package idea: home-baked cookies! Some of the other volunteers got Christmas care packages complete with home-baked cookies (which they shared) and they were HEAVENLY! Throw them in a ziplock bag and then into a padded envelope and they will be as good as right from the oven:)

Merry Christmas everyone!